Early history The town of Shelbyville was established in October 1792 at the first meeting of the Shelby County Court after local landowner
William Shannon agreed to surrender of his property to the community and provide 1 free acre for public buildings. As a result of the grant, Shelbyville, rather than the nearby
Squire Boone's Station, became the home of
Shelby County. The agricultural town was situated on the western bank of
Clear Creek at the confluence of
Mulberry Creek and near a road between
Louisville and
Frankfort. The town required new residents to construct a -story log cabin with a stone chimney; by 1795, there were 40 of these and, by 1800, there were 262 residents residing in
Shelbyville. New lots were platted in 1803, 1815, and 1816. changed its name to the St. James College after the
Civil War, and closed in 1871. It was replaced by a public elementary school. The Science Hill Female Academy was established in 1825 on Washington Street; it functioned as a college preparatory school for young women throughout the South prior to closing in 1939 at the end of the
Great Depression. The Shelbyville Female Seminary was established in 1839 and moved to its longtime residence at Seventh and Main in 1846. It became the Shelbyville Female Institute in 1849, the Presbyterian Stuart's Female College in 1851, the Shelbyville Female College in 1868, and the Baptist Shelbyville College from 1890 until its closure in 1912.
Louisville and Shelbyville Turnpike The
Louisville and Shelbyville Turnpike was completed in the 1830s, following a ridgeline path between the two sites dating back to the
Native Americans. After the
Louisville and Frankfort Railroad was constructed near the road in present-day
Cherokee Gardens in 1849, the turnpike company rerouted and constructed a new road nearby (originally known as the "Shelbyville Branch", now Lexington Avenue in
Louisville) which was completed in 1851.
Civil War Late in the
Civil War, on August 24, 1864,
Confederate guerillas under local sympathizer
Capt. Dave Martin attacked the Shelby County Courthouse, attempting to seize its cache of muskets. The local merchant Thomas McGrath and tailor J.H. Masonheimer fought them off, killing three of Martin's men. A black man named Owen was also killed in the exchange, having been forced to hold the guerillas' horses for them. Martin himself missed the gunfight, as he was held up outside the jail behind the courthouse when the jailer's wife Mrs. Burnett began furiously scolding him for endangering the lives of innocent townspeople including Martin's own wife and children. Following the raid, the trustees required all white male residents over the age of 18 to serve as police guards, erecting a blockhouse at Fifth and Main in front of the courthouse to serve as a headquarters. reaching the mainline of the
Louisville, Cincinnati and Lexington Railroad. Downtown Shelbyville expanded and gained many large, ornate buildings, especially during the rebuilding following a large fire in 1909. The oldest remaining banks were also organized during this time. The late 19th Century also saw a public water system, electricity, and libraries brought to the town. Following the
Spanish–American War, 116 men from Shelbyville made up Company C of the
161st Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which made up part of the
occupation force in
Cuba. They were stationed at
Camp Columbia just outside
Havana from December 17, 1898, until March 29, 1899. In 1911, a mob of twenty men stormed the county jail and
lynched three
African Americans. One was convicted of murdering an African American woman and the other two accused of annoying white girls.
Interstate 64 was built south of the city in 1960 and helped the area become more industrialized; there are now three industrial parks on the west side of the city. The population increased from 4,525 in 1960 to over 10,000 by the year 2000. ==Geography==